In the Oct. 8 paper, a guest columnist dismissed Iowans who worry that the state’s budget mess will hurt our schools, cities, and counties. Contrary to that writer, I see real threats to the taxpayers I seek to represent and the services and schools that make our community a great place to live.

Consider these three facts:

1. In 2013 the state of Iowa had a huge surplus. The governor and legislators decided to cut commercial property taxes. They promised Iowa's cities and schools, who did not have a huge surplus, that they would replace the money local communities lost due to the property tax cut. For several years, Iowa's state leaders largely kept that promise.

2. Gov. Reynolds and legislative leaders are now talking about fixing the state budget mess by breaking that 2013 promise. Instead of continuing to “backfill” the local losses to cities, schools, and counties, state leaders are proposing to bust local budgets in order to balance the state budget.

3. There is a lot of money on the table! Last year, for example, the backfill was worth almost $2 million to the City of Johnston and the Johnston Community School District .

Your guest columnist wrote that cities like Johnston will be fine because they are growing. Wrong. Johnston is growing because we are investing in our community and our schools. Iowa's local governments and schools simply do not have millions of spare dollars lying around in case the legislature and governor break their promises.